Episode 8 of Brandon Seale's podcast on the Engines of Texas History.

Texas's first true industrial "cluster" might have been ice-making. In the twentieth century, Texans lead the way in applying the science of refrigeration to human comfort and notched many significant firsts in the history of air conditioning. Most Texans' first experience with air conditioning was in movie theaters, and the movie industry repaid their patronage with an entire genre of films (the "Western") that helped make Texas "cool" in a way that it never had been before. The homogenizing effects of cinema worsened the marginalization of some Texas communities, however, even as it drove a massive wave of immigration from other U.S. states.

Photo courtesy of Friedrich Air Conditioning.

Sources:

Arsenault, Raymond. “The End of the Long, Hot Summer: The Air Conditioner and Southern Culture.” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Nov 1984): 597-628.

Cooper, Gail. Air Conditioning America: Engineers and Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (1998).

Swanson, Philip. “Remember the Alamo? Mexicans, Texans, and Americans in 1960’s Hollywood.” Iberoamericana, Año 11, No. 44 (Dic 2011): 85-100.

Woolrich, W.R. The Men Who Created Cold. New York, NY: Exposition Press, 1967.

www.BrandonSeale.com